The purpose of this report is to forecast the future (2016-2021) of the North American telecommunications network, and from that forecast to identify the major equipment needs to fulfill that forecast. There has been a great deal of turmoil in the area of telecommunications, much of it leading to spectacular changes and advances. Turmoil has been created by technological changes, by regulatory changes, by the development of new products and applications, by the introductions of new, or new flavors, of services, and by the entry of non-traditional competitors. This report will use the technique of asking the experts for their view of the future and then distilling from that input (some of which will be contradictory) a consistent, unified, organized view of the next five years of telecommunications in North America. The first chapter will describe the survey that was used to "ask the experts." After that, the reader will be presented with several of the raw answers for the responders to the survey. It is intended to give the reader a first hand view of some of the material in the responders' words. Following the raw answers sample, the author will provide a summary and analysis of the answers and then the resulting forecast for the future of the network. Finally, this general forecast will be used to provide specific equipment forecasts for this period. This will be accomplished by combining the Forecast of the Future Network that we have constructed with the Survey, with information about forecast of traffic demand and likely investment (supply). The report will thus produce detailed forecasts for the major types of equipment used in optical networks. A description of the makeup and function of each type of equipment will precede the forecast. At the end of the report, a listing of major vendors that provide this equipment is provided a swell as Appendixes to assist in understanding traffic concepts.

From the Foreword: "This book lays out much of what we’ve learned at AT&T about SDN and NFV. Some of the smartest network experts in the industry have drawn a map to help you navigate this journey. Their goal isn’t to predict the future but to help you design and build a network that will be ready for whatever that future holds. Because if there’s one thing the last decade has taught us, it’s that network demand will always exceed expectations. This book will help you get ready." —Randall Stephenson, Chairman, CEO, and President of AT&T "Software is changing the world, and networks too. In this in-depth book, AT&T's top networking experts discuss how they're moving software-defined networking from concept to practice, and why it's a business imperative to do this rapidly." —Urs Hölzle, SVP Cloud Infrastructure, Google "Telecom operators face a continuous challenge for more agility to serve their customers with a better customer experience and a lower cost. This book is a very inspiring and vivid testimony of the huge transformation this means, not only for the networks but for the entire companies, and how AT&T is leading it. It provides a lot of very deep insights about the technical challenges telecom engineers are facing today. Beyond AT&T, I’m sure this book will be extremely helpful to the whole industry." —Alain Maloberti, Group Chief Network Officer, Orange Labs Networks "This new book should be read by any organization faced with a future driven by a "shift to software." It is a holistic view of how AT&T has transformed its core infrastructure from hardware based to largely software based to lower costs and speed innovation. To do so, AT&T had to redefine their technology supply chain, retrain their workforce, and move toward open source user-driven innovation; all while managing one of the biggest networks in the world. It is an amazing feat that will put AT&T in a leading position for years to come." —Jim Zemlin, Executive Director, The Linux Foundation This book is based on the lessons learned from AT&T’s software transformation journey starting in 2012 when rampant traffic growth necessitated a change in network architecture and design. Using new technologies such as NFV, SDN, Cloud, and Big Data, AT&T’s engineers outlined and implemented a radical network transformation program that dramatically reduced capital and operating expenditures. This book describes the transformation in substantial detail. The subject matter is of great interest to telecom professionals worldwide, as well as academic researchers looking to apply the latest techniques in computer science to solving telecom’s big problems around scalability, resilience, and survivability.

"The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic marks the most significant, singular global disruption since World War II, with health, economic, political, and security implications that will ripple for years to come." -Global Trends 2040 (2021) Global Trends 2040-A More Contested World (2021), released by the US National Intelligence Council, is the latest report in its series of reports starting in 1997 about megatrends and the world's future. This report, strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, paints a bleak picture of the future and describes a contested, fragmented and turbulent world. It specifically discusses the four main trends that will shape tomorrow's world: - Demographics-by 2040, 1.4 billion people will be added mostly in Africa and South Asia. - Economics-increased government debt and concentrated economic power will escalate problems for the poor and middleclass. - Climate-a hotter world will increase water, food, and health insecurity. - Technology-the emergence of new technologies could both solve and cause problems for human life. Students of trends, policymakers, entrepreneurs, academics, journalists and anyone eager for a glimpse into the next decades, will find this report, with colored graphs, essential reading.

Knowledge is Power in Four Dimensions: Models to Forecast Future Paradigms, Forecasting Energy for Tomorrow's World with Mathematical Modeling and Python Programming Driven Artificial Intelligence delivers knowledge on key infrastructure topics in both AI technology and energy. Sections lay the groundwork for tomorrow's computing functionality, starting with how to build a Business Resilience System (BRS), data warehousing, data management, and fuzzy logic. Subsequent chapters dive into the impact of energy on economic development and the environment and mathematical modeling, including energy forecasting and engineering statistics. Energy examples are included for application and learning opportunities. A final section deliver the most advanced content on artificial intelligence with the integration of machine learning and deep learning as a tool to forecast and make energy predictions. The reference covers many introductory programming tools, such as Python, Scikit, TensorFlow and Kera. - Helps users gain fundamental knowledge in technology infrastructure, including AI, machine learning and fuzzy logic - Compartmentalizes data knowledge into near-term and long-term forecasting models, with examples involving both renewable and non-renewable energy outcomes - Advances climate resiliency and helps readers build a business resiliency system for assets

Examines the unique role of the library media specialist in a time of rapid change. The authors draw on the day-to-day experiences of media specialists and supervisors to highlight the best practices in library media services and show how these practices will fit into the context of the future of education.